Should You Charge for Landscape Design? The Close-Rate Math for Contractors

You should charge for landscape design on any job that needs a real plan, meaning a drawn layout with dimensions, grades and a takeoff, and credit the fee toward the installation if the client signs. Keep free estimates for simple, standard jobs you can price from one site visit, because free design isn’t free: the jobs you win pay for every design that didn’t sign.

Should you charge for landscape design?

Yes, on any job that needs a drawn plan with dimensions, grades and a takeoff. Charge a flat fee that covers your design hours, and credit it toward the build if the client signs within a set window, such as 60 or 90 days. Keep free estimates for simple jobs you can price from one site visit.

Free estimate or paid design: where the line falls

A free estimate prices a scope the client already knows they want: replace a walk, build a 12 by 16 patio, put in a straight wall along the drive. You measure, sketch and price it. That’s sales work, and it belongs in your overhead.

Design is different. You’re solving the problem: where the patio goes, how the grades step down, where the water runs, which walls and steps it takes, what materials fit. That takes drawing time, and it usually takes revisions.

A simple test: if you’d have to draw it to scale to price it accurately, it’s design, and design should be paid for.

If you’re not sure what a paid plan should actually deliver, our 10-step hardscape design guide lays out the planning order and what a plan needs to show before a crew can build it.

For the simple end, fixed-price patio packages keep the free estimate fast by pricing standard sizes and scopes in advance. At the other end, some jobs outgrow any contractor’s design fee: big regrades, regulated sites and walls that need engineering. Our comparison of a landscape architect vs. landscape designer covers who handles those.

The close-rate math behind free design

Every design you give away gets paid for by the jobs you sign. The formula is:

Design cost per signed job = (hours per design × your hourly cost) ÷ close rate

Here’s a worked example. Every number is an assumption, so swap in your own. A design takes 6 hours: 2 for the site visit and presentation, 4 for drawing and the takeoff. At $60 an hour, that’s $360 per design.

At a 25 percent close rate you sign 1 job for every 4 designs, so each signed job carries $1,440 of design time ($360 ÷ 0.25). At 50 percent it’s $720. That cost lands somewhere: in a higher price that makes you less competitive, or in a thinner margin.

Now charge a $400 fee, a little above the $360 the design costs you, and credit it toward the build if they sign. Over a season of 40 designs at the same 25 percent close rate:

Approach	Design time	Fees you keep	Left for signed jobs	Per signed job (10 jobs)
Free design	$14,400	$0	$14,400	$1,440
$400 fee, credited if they sign	$14,400	$12,000	$2,400	$240
$400 fee, not credited	$14,400	$16,000	$0 ($1,600 ahead)	$0

With free design, the lower your close rate, the more each signed job carries. With a credited fee, each signed job carries less than the cost of one design: $240 at 25 percent, $280 at 33 percent and $320 at 50 percent, never more than the $360 a design costs.

A fee will usually cut the number of design requests too. That’s part of the point. Fewer free plans go to people who were collecting ideas, and you keep those hours for clients who are ready to build.

Three ways to charge for landscape design

Flat fee, credited toward the build

This is usually the easiest version to sell. The client pays before you draw, and if they sign within a set window, say 60 or 90 days, the full fee comes off the contract. On jobs you win it costs the client nothing extra, and on jobs you lose it pays for your time. Put the window in writing.

Design retainer

For large, multi-phase projects with many revisions, a flat fee may not cover the hours. Take a retainer, bill design time against it, and say in the agreement whether any of it gets credited to the build.

Before you take money up front that rolls into a home improvement contract, check your state’s rules. California, for example, limits the down payment on a home improvement job to 10 percent of the price or $1,000, whichever is less. Have your attorney look at how your design agreement and your build contract fit together.

Design-only fee, not credited

Some clients want a plan to build themselves or to bid out. Price that as a product, higher than your credited fee, because you may never build it. Spell out what they get: the plan sheets, the takeoff, and how many revision rounds.

If a client is weighing your design-only fee against an online plan, our look at how Yardzen’s packages work and what they include lays out that side of the comparison.

How to set the fee

Start with your own numbers, not a competitor’s:

• Cover your hours. Hours per design × your hourly cost, rounded up. In the example, 6 hours × $60 = $360, so $400.
• Tier by scope. One area costs less to draw than a whole yard. Two or three fixed tiers are easier to quote than an hourly guess.
• Cap the revisions. Include one or two rounds and price the rest.
• Name what they get. A scaled plan, a material list and a fixed price to build it.

A design that ends in a takeoff also makes the estimate faster. Our guide to estimating a paver patio shows how those quantities turn into a price.

How to present the design fee

Say it plainly, early, and before you draw anything. Something like: “Our design fee is $400. You get a scaled plan, a material list and a fixed price to build it. If you hire us within 60 days, the full $400 comes off your project.”

Then stop talking. A client who won’t pay a fee that comes back to them when they hire you is telling you how serious they are, and so is a client who pays.

Related: How to present a landscape design so the client signs

Protecting your design

Copyright won’t stop a client from shopping your idea. The U.S. Copyright Office says copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, systems or methods. You can claim copyright in your drawing, but a curved patio with a seat wall and a fire pit is an idea anyone can build.

The protection that works is in your paperwork and your process:

• License the plan in the design agreement for construction by your company, with a stated buyout price, such as your design-only fee, to use it with another builder.
• Release the full set at signing. Present the concept, then hand over construction sheets and the takeoff with the signed contract.
• Keep pricing off the plan sheet so the plan can’t double as a bid sheet for someone else.

An attorney can write the license clause once, and you reuse it on every job.

The outsourced path

If drawing is what you’d rather not do, outsource the drawing and keep charging the fee. Outsourcing trades 4 hours of drawing for a plan you pay for, which makes sense when your hour is worth more than the plan price divided by the hours it saves.

Our white-label landscape design plans cost $295 per area and $750 per full yard, carry your logo and include a takeoff, and we never contact your client. At $295, that breakeven is about $74 an hour ($295 ÷ 4). Price your fee above your full cost: $295 plus your 2 hours of site visit and presentation at $60 is $415, so a $450 fee covers it. If you’re weighing a full-time designer instead, see our breakdown of landscape designer cost for contractors.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should a contractor charge for landscape design?

Start with your real hours per design times your hourly cost, round up, and set a tier for one area and another for a full yard. In our example, 6 hours at $60 is $360, so a $400 single-area fee covers the time.

Should a design fee be credited toward the project?

For design-build, usually yes. It makes the fee easy to agree to, it costs the client nothing extra if they hire you, and it pays for your time on jobs you lose. Put a time limit on the credit, such as 60 or 90 days, in the design agreement.

What if a client takes my design to another contractor?

Copyright can protect your drawing but not the idea, so rely on your design agreement. License the plan for construction by your company, set a buyout price for using it elsewhere, and release full construction sheets only with a signed contract.

Are free design estimates worth it?

For simple jobs you can price from a site visit, yes. For custom designs, run the math on your own close rate: at 25 percent, each signed job carries the cost of four designs, and that comes out of your price or your margin.

Can I copyright a landscape design?

You can claim copyright in your drawings, since the law covers architectural plans and drawings, but the U.S. Copyright Office says copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, systems or methods. Anyone can build a layout idea, so your design agreement protects you more than copyright does.

Is there a limit on how much a contractor can collect up front?

It depends on the state. California, for example, caps the down payment on a home improvement job at 10 percent of the price or $1,000, whichever is less. Check your state’s rules before a design fee rolls into a build contract, and have your attorney review both documents.

How much does it cost to outsource a landscape plan?

Our white-label plans cost $295 per area and $750 per full yard, with your logo and a takeoff. Add your own site visit and presentation time, about 2 hours at $60 in our example, and a $450 fee covers the $415 total.

What should a landscape design agreement include?

The scope, the fee, the credit window, how many revision rounds are included and who can build from the plan. Add a buyout price for using the plan with another builder, and get the fee and the signature before you start drawing.

Sources: U.S. Copyright Office, What Does Copyright Protect? (FAQ); California Contractors State License Board, What You Should Know Before You Hire a Contractor

Written and reviewed by Thayne Muthler, owner of Muthler Landscaping & Construction. How we check facts: editorial policy.